


Six pounds of pasta

by Em_Jaye



Series: The Long Way Around [23]
Category: Ant-Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, F/M, Female Friendship, Gen, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Scientist Wrangler Darcy Lewis, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-19
Updated: 2019-11-19
Packaged: 2021-02-13 09:47:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21492304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Em_Jaye/pseuds/Em_Jaye
Summary: Woody Allen once said, 'If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans." With that in mind, Darcy had to wonder if there was anyone who could make God laugh quite like Steve Rogers.October 1973: Girl talk
Relationships: Darcy Lewis/Steve Rogers
Series: The Long Way Around [23]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1402126
Comments: 62
Kudos: 204





	Six pounds of pasta

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little something to distract myself from my garbage Practical Magic AU NaNo. And to answer some questions regarding our favorite 70s genius.

Darcy was enjoying the first sip of her wine when Janet dropped into the booth across from her. She waved and swallowed quickly. “I was starting to wonder if I was being stood up,” she joked, watching as Janet shed her jacket and unwound her scarf from her neck.

“Sorry,” Janet huffed and pushed her honey blonde hair away from her face. “It’s been a little hectic. How are you?” she asked, before she gave Darcy a quick once-over. “You look…happy,” she decided before Darcy could respond. “Happy and well-fucked.”

She blushed and absently patted down her own hair, wondering if she really looked that different or if it was just that obvious that the goodbye kiss she’d meant to give Steve had gotten out of hand too quickly and she’d nearly missed her reservation. “Correct on both accounts!” she said with a grin that faded quickly when she had a moment to study her friend. “You look…less so.”

“On both accounts,” Janet rolled her eyes. She flipped open her menu and ran a fingernail down the wine list. “I need a drink,” she muttered. “And to eat about six pounds of pasta.”

Darcy’s smile returned. “I ordered breadsticks while I was waiting,” she said. “They should be out in a minute.” She pushed her wine glass across the table. “But here, have a drink and tell me what’s up.”

Janet had called her last night, uncharacteristically vague in her reasons for the two of them having dinner. She’d said she didn’t care if Steve had joined them, but he had a school board meeting he couldn’t miss, so Darcy had let worry twist her stomach all day and gone to dinner alone.

“I wouldn’t bother you with it normally,” she said, after she’d helped herself to Darcy’s offered wine. “Oh, I like that,” she noted as she handed it back. “But you’re one of three people who has any idea about what just happened, and I don’t have anyone else to talk to.” She frowned. “And I guess because I just realized I don’t have a lot of friends.”

Darcy reached across the table and put a hand over Janet’s delicate wrist. “I’d have dinner with you even if you just wanted to talk about…” she shrugged. “Robert Redford or…Watergate or something.”

Janet held up her free hand and grimaced. “Don’t bring up Nixon,” she begged. “I feel sick enough as it is.”

They were interrupted by the arrival of a basket of soft breadsticks, a bottle of the wine Darcy had ordered and a glass for Janet, and a waiter who took the rest of their order. She waited until Janet had stuffed half a breadstick in her mouth and swallowed before she cleared her throat. “But since this doesn’t seem to be just a girls-night-out,” she went on. “Why don’t you tell me what happened? ”

“They shut down Tahoe.”

Darcy felt her eyes widen. “What? Why?”

Janet rolled her shoulder. “I don’t know. Tim just told me yesterday.”

“The whole lab? Or just his?”

“Whole thing,” she broke off another piece of bread and popped it into her mouth. “He said some government agency came in and just started taking things…” she shook her head and chewed thoughtfully. “Tim was a mess.”

“Taking things?” Darcy repeated faintly. “Like what?”

“All their notes, their research, patient and subject files—”

“Wait,” she interrupted, her brow furrowed. “What do you mean a government agency did this? I thought Project Tahoe was government.”

“Different part, I guess?” Janet looked just as confused. “Whatever this group was, Tim said none of his superiors had any idea.”

Darcy felt her stomach twist again. “Did anyone tell him who they were?” she asked, even though she already knew.

Janet’s face wrinkled sourly. “Some made-up sounding bullshit,” she muttered. “Strategic Hazard Intervention…” she shook her head. “I’m not sure what exactly it stands for, but Tim said they all called themselves SHIELD,” she said, unaware that the name made Darcy’s heart drop. “They gave him a card to look at for about three seconds before they took it back.”

That sounded too familiar and Darcy was reminded, with an ache, of how Jane had chased after various agents in New Mexico, trying to swipe back any piece of her research or equipment. She shook off the memory and watched Janet grab for another breadstick. Vaguely wondering if she’d made friends with another stress-eating scientist, Darcy bit her lip. “So, what does all that mean for you and Tim?”

“Tim,” Janet said with her mouth full, “still has a job at Berkeley, so he’s not completely out in the cold. But he said that when he went to the office he’d been using up at the facility, it was completely cleaned out and they wrote him a check for any personal property they might have taken along with the research.”

“They took everything?” she clarified, although she knew she didn’t need to. If this was SHIELD, then that’s exactly what they would have done. Clean sweeps were their specialty.

“Don’t worry,” she said, almost breezily. “I made sure Tim destroyed your records. Yours and Steve’s. There’s nothing that says you were ever a part of the experiments.”

Darcy waved those words away. “I don’t care about that—”

“You should care about that, Darcy,” Janet said, firm enough to take Darcy by surprise. “If some CIA-type organization can just roll in and steal whatever they want, who knows how deep they’ll investigate what they took? You don’t want anyone paying too close attention to you—especially now.”

Darcy pursed her lips. “Okay,” she relented, “you’re right.” Because she was and Darcy could use a reminder that she still had a long way to go if she wanted to really blend in. “But since it sounds like you and Tim took care of us, I’m really just more concerned about you.” She waited in the silence that followed, while Janet poured herself a very full glass of wine and finished her breadstick, before she lifted her eyebrows expectantly. “So?” she asked finally. “What about you? Your research? Your notes?”

“I still have my originals,” she said carefully, taking a sip from her glass before her lips formed a thin line. “But as far as anything that corroborates my findings? Anything that—” she stopped herself with a cough. “Anything that looks like proof?” she shook her head. “That’s what I needed Tim for. We were going to do this together,” she said, her tone still perfectly measured, though Darcy caught the way she was pressing the tips of her fingers into the table so hard they’d turned white. “And if everything he had in his office is really all gone, then it’s…” she swallowed hard and blinked quickly. “Then everything I did looks unsubstantiated and it would appear there was no point to any of it.”

“No point?” Darcy echoed in disbelief. “Janet—” she cut herself off. “Look, I know you’re not a hugger, but it physically pains me to sit this far away from you when you look like you could actually benefit from a hug.” Janet’s weak laugh was chased by a sniffle before she rolled her eyes and slid over in the booth, giving both space and permission to come over to her side. When Darcy wrapped her arms around her, Janet leaned in and brought both hands up to cover one of Darcy’s arms. “As I was saying,” she continued, not letting go. “I can’t believe you just said there was no point to the work you’ve been doing for the last year and a half.”

“There isn’t—”

Darcy tightened her hug like a warning. “Janet. You figured out time travel,” she reminded. “You. Yourself. Janet Van Dyne. Invented the math that powered a machine that transported human beings forward and backwards in time.” She pulled back so she could meet her friend’s gaze. “How could that not matter?”

Janet didn’t look impressed. “If they dismantled the program that—”

“If they dismantled NASA would that mean it didn’t matter that we walked on the moon?” Darcy asked, cutting her off a second time.

“Darcy,” Janet frowned, “there’s proof that we walked on the moon.”

“And there’s proof that you’re a genius,” Darcy said firmly. “Just because it’s in somebody else’s hands doesn’t change the fact that it exists. It does. And I know you still don’t believe me,” she added. “But you’re going to change the world someday. Okay?”

Janet sniffled again and shook her head. “I appreciate you saying that,” she said, sounding genuine. “It just doesn’t really seem like it right now.”

“I know,” Darcy gave her a final, quick squeeze before she let her go. “Life is hard and horrible things happen to really good people and we can’t do anything about most of it.”

Janet’s delicate features wrinkled. “Is this…still part of your pep talk?”

“It kind of went off the rails,” she admitted as she got up and slid back into her own side of the booth where she was able to catch sight of their waiter. “But at the very least, we have a sinful amount of pasta and cheese walking over to our table right now. So, the world will be a little better for the half hour it takes us to eat that.”

Janet didn’t look much more optimistic, but she managed a smile and picked up her wine again. “The world’s already a little better than when I walked in,” she said. “Thanks.”

She smiled back. “Anytime.”

They dove into their dinners with equal fervor, stealing and sharing forkfuls of chicken parmesan and pork scaloppini before Janet cleared her throat and poured herself more wine. “I know I mentioned it when I walked in but,” a half-smile tugged at the corner of her lips. “You and Steve?” She lifted her eyebrows. “That’s going well, I assume?”

Darcy felt her cheeks flame as she gave her best attempt at nonchalance with a shrug. “Yeah,” she said, biting back the stupid smile that always came over her face when she thought about him lately. “It’s…y’know,” she shrugged again. “It’s fine.”

Janet nodded once before she jerked her chin in Darcy’s direction. “You have a hickey on your shoulder the size of Montana, Darcy. I hope it’s a little better than ‘fine.’”

She gasped and clapped a guilty hand over her left side, where her neck met her shoulder and where she’d tried unsuccessfully to cover up a dark purple bruise that had appeared the day before. “Damnit,” she muttered, her face aflame. “I thought my shirt covered it.”

Janet snickered and shook her head. “Don’t worry,” she assured her. “I’m sure your work clothes hide it just fine.”

“I should probably invest in a turtleneck or two,” Darcy stabbed at a piece of chicken, still fighting a guilty grin.

“Or tell him to focus that attention elsewhere,” Janet suggested a moment before she cracked and let out a genuine laugh.

Darcy kicked her under the table like she would have done with Jane or her own sister and reminded herself that being one of Janet’s only friends was another good reason to be happy to be in 1973.

**Author's Note:**

> No, I didn't forget what SHIELD actually stands for (well, I mean, I DID, but that's not the point). I lifted this alternative acronym from this article re: SHIELD's beginnings: 
> 
> https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wired.com/2013/09/s-h-i-e-l-d-101-faq/amp
> 
> \-----
> 
> Hope you liked it!
> 
> Come play with me on tumblr: @idontgettechnology and join me at ishipitpod.com for weekly podcast on fandom and fanfic by yours truly.
> 
> *kisses*


End file.
